Faculty & Research Archive

Excerpt from The Wall Street Journal -- "... Universities are these amazing things going all the way back to Plato's academy outside of Athens with different norms -- norms of truth-seeking. And what's happening is, as American society is getting much more polarized, and the cross-partisan hatred is ramping up and ripping apart some institutions, because universities lean left, as many institutions lean one way or the other, there's ever more pressure on left-leaning views and the quality of thinking suffers." Read more

Since the summer of 2016, the global economy has been in a period of moderate expansion, with the growth rate accelerating gradually. What has not picked up, at least in the advanced economies, is inflation. The question is why. Read more

Humanity has an urgent need to fight climate change, and businesses can play a key role in doing so. But we recognize that, in many businesses, resources are often allocated according to short-term, bottom-line pressures. We thus wanted to figure out a way to help executives quantify the financial benefits of reducing their firm’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Read more

Excerpt from the Financial Times -- "In a paper presented at the Brookings Institution last week, Germán Gutiérrez and Thomas Philippon show how investment has fallen relative to profitability." Read more

At the bargaining table, a negotiator’s primary objective is to reach the best possible outcome, be it a higher salary, additional accessories when purchasing a car, or acquiring a company at a lower price. No matter what one negotiates about, the single most reliable predictor of the outcome is the amount of power one has. Although having power is important for many reasons, there are two fundamental ways in which power benefits negotiators. Read more

Artificial intelligence is firmly embedded throughout the economy. Financial services firms use it to provide investment advice to customers, automakers are using it in vehicle autopilot systems, technology companies are using it to create virtual assistants like Alexa and Siri, and retailers are using artificial intelligence (AI) together with customers’ prior sales histories, to predict potential purchases in the future, to name but a few examples. The potential of AI to boost economic growth has been discussed in numerous forums, including by Accenture, the Council on Foreign Relations, the McKinsey Global Institute, the World Economic Forum, and President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, among others. Read more

Work is not what it used to be. The very concept of work has evolved considerably over the centuries, as newer technologies have become integrated into how we function individually as well as a society. ... With machines now performing this role, often better than us, how valuable will the human - or ‘nonroutine’ - aspects of work be in the future? Read more

In a recent commentary for the South China Morning Post, Helen Wong, HSBC’s chief executive for Greater China, shows that China’s rising generation of 400 million young consumers will soon account for more than half of the country’s domestic consumption. This generation, Wong notes, is largely transacting online, through innovative, integrated mobile platforms, indicating that it has already “leapt from the pre­web era straight to the mobile Internet, skipping the personal computer altogether.” Read more

In his memorable review of 21 books about the 2007-09 financial crisis, Andrew Lo (2012) evoked Kurosawa’s classic film, Rashomon, to characterise the remarkable differences between these crisis accounts. Not only were the interpretations in dispute, but the facts were as well: “Even its starting date is unclear. Should we mark its beginning at the crest of the US housing bubble in mid-2006, or with the liquidity crunch in the shadow banking system in late 2007, or with the bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers and the ‘breaking of the buck’ by the Reserve Primary Fund in September 2008?” (Lo 2012) Read more

Taboo and sacredness are among the most important words needed to understand Charlottesville and its aftermath. Taboo refers to things that are forbidden for religious or supernatural reasons. All traditional societies have such prohibitions—things you must not do, touch, or eat, not because they are bad for you directly, but because doing so is an abomination, which may bring divine retribution. But every society also makes some things sacred, rallying around a few deeply revered values, people, or places, which bind all members together and make them willing to sacrifice for the common good. The past week brought violent conflict over symbols and values held sacred—and saw President Trump commit an act of sacrilege by violating one of our society’s strongest taboos. Read more

It may well be in our future. A definitive government report on climate science makes clear that the frequency and intensity of precipitation in the northeast (already the highest in the nation, with a 17% increase in the last 25 years) will only grow dramatically in years to come. Read more

China is at a pivotal point for its future economic growth as the country attempts to transition from a state-controlled, investment-driven economy to one that is more market-oriented and consumption-driven. It is also at a critical point in its path to integration in global financial markets, as highlighted by the debate over the potential inclusion of China A shares in MSCI indices. Read more

Corporate public relations professionals in the present era of social media have a challenging job, because the strategic use of tweets and other social tools remains a largely uncharted frontier. New research from NYU Stern Accounting Professor Michael Jung and co-authors delves into how companies use social media to disseminate both positive and negative financial information and what, if any, benefits accrue. Read more

A new report, co-authored by the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business and the Natural Resources Defense Council, proposes an innovative grant program to help protect New York City’s waterways through green infrastructure Read more

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded NYU Stern Professors Jason Greenberg, Gino Cattani and Joseph Porac a $294,291 grant to support their research on competition and entrepreneurial performance in the New York City restaurant industry. Read more